You also need to run a replay harness, the harness in the car does not provide enough power for the initially ballast kick. The relay harness gets rid of this by tapping directly into your battery.

 

Thank you for your concern but I've invested a good $300 on just my headlight hid's because I trust what my friend supplies. He specs out a lot of his own product and I have been running his HID's and LED's for over 2 years, not one has failed yet.

You will not need any additional relay harness given that you purchsed a good proper kit. For me it was no simplier than plug and play. The only trouble I always run into is trying to reach the dam bulbs with my big hands.

Also welcome aboard mate.

 

Did you run a 55w Ballast / 55w bulb kit without a relay? I'm always paranoid of overloading the car's already existing harness and having a costly repair on my hands vs. taking a few more steps to run a seperate relay for the ballasts.

Edit: Thanks for the welcome!

 

Can I get your friends info so I can get a quote on a set for me? I was looking into Mtec 35's but I am open to other options

 

2nd'd. Always willing to try out new things. Does he have a website?

 

If you mean a relay that run from battery to ballast, then no I don't use any of that nonsense.

I don't believe he has a website. He's a small time guy. I know he used to prefer installing things himself because customers used improperly install, maybe fry something, and blame him for a bad product. But in any case, let me know what you're interested in and I'll see if I can get in contact with him to work something out.

 

Interested in his knowledge, he seems to know what hes doing from what you've told me. Has he written any tutorials on how to do this stuff on our cars?

 

Unfortunately not. I don't think there's much to write about that hasn't already been written.

 

If the people who have success with their plug & play swap could post links to the lights that they purchased I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

I am tempted to swap the guts (bixenon) of the facelift lamps I have into my existing halogens. I wish they weren't active...

 

Or you could possibly just heat the lenses off and swap them to your current projectors? Not sure if that'll work but at least you'll have the facelifted look right.

 

^^^That would definitely work, I know it has been done by a couple of members, but that hardly helps the light output
Might get crazy this coming weekend and do some baking, since I have both the bixenon lamps and a passenger side pre facelift spare halogen.
If they swap easy that may be a good route to take.

 

I also meant you could take off the projector lenses itself and swap it with ZKW-R lenses. It seems to be a success over at the amg forums.

 

I'll share my thoughts that I PM'd you about here so that others can see the alternative route that LemonSqueezy is suggesting. My thread that I swapped facelift internal bezels, reflector bowls and shrouds into some pre-facelift housings walks through the process, but don't expect a DIY because it's just a summary of thoughts. I also swapped some ZKW-R clear lenses onto the projectors which helped the light output tremendously. My pictures don't show the true difference, but my trust does... so trust me.



Anyways here is my thread.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...11-budget.html

Some extra notes that I personally PM'd you, but would like to share:

I cannot confirm that the 07-09 bi-xenon projectors are a "direct fit" in your pre-facelift non-bi-xenon housings. The facelift lamps I bought were halogen with electronic leveling, but from my research the bi-xenon e55 projectors are a direct bolt on. When I did my retrofit/facelift update the halogen 07-09 projector bolted on directly, but the signal reflector bowl needed some modification to work in my 06 housings. I had to trim some of the positioning tabs on the back so it would recess at the proper depth. In addition the signal bulb socket twists on to hold the reflector bowl in place. On the 07-09 housings the signal reflector bowl snaps in place, but because it no longer could snap in place in the pre-facelift housings, I used the bulb socket to hold it in place, along with the trimmed tabs and a piece of double sided tape to prevent it from rotating and slipping off. As you can see the pre-facelift signal reflector bowl is integrated with the projector shroud, but on the facelift ones the reflector bowl is a separate piece.

Pre-Facelift


Facelift


Also note, the projector bolts to a plastic surround bracket that is attached to all the motors. Since I saw the same plastic surround bracket used on my 06 as the 07-09 housings I parted from, I would be very surprised if it was not the same in your bi-xenon housings.

Above is a front view of the plastic surround bracket I'm talking about that the projector bolts onto via 4 torque screws. Also above it is the signal reflector bowl that I had to modify to fit in my 06 housings. Below is a side view of the same shot.



I also have the same passenger-side flicker that AMGAffalterbach mentioned about, but it only happens ever so often, usually at a full stop. I haven't bothered to fix this issue since I too bought a second set of ballast that I assumed was the issue, but mistakenly paid for nothing in return. However I will note that this flicker occurred more often when I was running a 35W ballast in the low beams than it does now with 55W ballast. Also note that both ballast were digital ballast. Not sure if analog ballast would alleviate the issue more if not completely.

 

Wow, thanks for sharing mate

 

Deleted

 

You're incorrect in your earlier posts stop spreading mis-information please I'm getting tired of correcting these misnomers. 55W HIDs will NOT MELT YOUR PROJECTORS THIS IS A MYTH. It may happen if you get a super cheap kit but still show me evidence of this as even a 55w HID system will run cooler than the stock halogen bulb. You also do not need a wiring relay harness to run to the battery the stock wiring is just fine even on 55w. The amperage is literally half of a halogen bulb.

 

Good write-up man. I'm experiencing less and less of the passenger side flicker now that the bulbs and capacitors are "broken in" to the point that I really don't notice it anymore even when pulling into the garage which is when I normally did before. For me it's pretty much been a non-issue!

 

Thank you for your concern AMG, I am equally as confused as you are by the opposite claim. How can we be sure?

And hence I said cheap bulbs...

I will try to find the write up from HIDplanet.com that a reputable member (Member name: JVX) did regarding temperatures inside the projector using the different wattage.

Maybe we all need to visist: http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/foru...ative-Articles

Cheers.

 

No worries, well we can be sure because many forum members including myself have or have had 55w HIDs installed in their cars and no issues - I can't find any pictures or evidence of this ever having happened and I've had no issues with scorching at all. Unless you REALLY mess up and get some terrible quality ballasts that allow for an overvolting condition you should be fine, because likely bad quality ballasts will just go out prematurely or be pretty dim. You'll hear that argument a lot but I can tell you in practice that it has remained a non-issue for most people.

 

An idea of what 6k 55w and 5k 35w looks like color wise

 

Here is 55w 5000k

 

They both look good.

I ordered a bunch of stuff. Mtec head lights, led driving lights & some led projector fog light, & led licence plate lights. I dunno how it's all gonna look together, or if it will even work properly, but i'm gonna find out soon.

 

You are correct, after a day of research I finally found clear evidence of this and 55w Xenon bulbs do run cooler than 55w halogens. Sorry for the misinformation.

 

Are the Mtec conversion kits for W211 really "error" free?

I doubt that considering most everyone needed some sort of a capacitor across the trigger wires to stop flickering or to even have the lights stay on? Sorry if i'm sounding like a novice but I take claims of "error free" or "guaranteed to work with any car" with weariness